Assist Feed

I really feel your best chance to get him started eating is with live. I am not saying stay with live but I don't think there is a zombie rat dance out there that can truly replicate the instictual urge for a snake to strike live prey.

Having said that as soon as you get him eating well you can attempt the switch to F/T.

feed him live, once he shows a good feeding response after a few feedings, you then can try to switch to f/t. also when you was describing your setup, did you say that the uth wasn't on a thermostat? this needs to be corrected

Well, our infrared lamp is on a thermostat because we needed to increase the temperatures outside of his cave, but we did not want to cook him. The thermostat brings the temperature in his cave up to 90, then turns off. Wouldnt putting the UTH on it just cause the temperature to fluctuate more?

the uth needs to be on a thermostat by itself. if you burn your snake, it will really go off feed. and at this point, might not recover. if the uth feels warm to you, it's hot to your snake.

and if that heated cave is anything like a hot rock, get rid of it.

Its not a hot rock, im just referring to it as the cave on the hot side of the cage.

We have a thermometer in the cave which is half in the substrate, and the temperature has never gone above what the thermostat is set at.